The Bocce Boom : Once the Game of Italians and Old-Timers, Others Are Being Bowled Over by It

November 29, 1990|PETER BENNETT | SPECIAL TO THE TIMES; Bennett is a Los Angeles writer

Their duel in the late-afternoon sun had all the makings of a holy war.

With the resolve of St. Peter, Sister Teresa Colosio slowly curled her fingers around a green bocce ball, then gently rolled it within inches of the pallino, or smaller target ball, 50 feet away.

"Buono, buono, " said the Italian-born nun, playing to an approving courtside audience at the Villa Scalabrini retirement home in Sun Valley.

Now it was Father August Feccia's turn to roll. Like an avenging angel, the bespectacled priest decided to knock (bocce) the sister's ball out of the way.

"Many times the best offense is a good defense," said Feccia.

In this case, the priest's strategy worked a little too well. His rapid underhand toss was delivered with such force that both bocce balls ricocheted off the sideboards and leaped out of bounds.

"Boccia morta (dead ball)," pronounced Sister Teresa, who is as comfortable in full habit as a layman in a jogging suit.

Her teammate, Sam Costanzo, 85, shouted encouragement. Dominick Tummillo, 81, did the same for his partner, Feccia.

The two holy leaders retrieved their balls and prepared to resume battle, their goal agonizingly simple: to knock their adversary's balls away from the tiny pallino while remaining close to it themselves.

"The game is in our blood, our heritage," said Tummillo, who first played as a boy in Southern Italy.

But the sport of bocce is no longer the exclusive turf of Italians, Catholics and old-timers. It's gone upscale.

At the Market Street Cafe, a trendy Pasadena eatery where wine spritzers and topsiders are the fashion, restaurant-goers play bocce on a single outdoor court next to the bar.

Carrie Russell, a La Canada art consultant, said she stumbled on the game one night after the restaurant's hostess told her there would be a 45-minute wait for a table.

"I didn't want to have another glass of wine, so I was looking for something to do," said Russell, who often coaxes friends into a spirited game or two before dinner.

"I love the game; it's so simple, kinda like pitching pennies or horseshoes," she said.

Sal Casola, the restaurant's owner, said he's never regretted putting a bocce court in the restaurant even though it meant losing a few money-making dining tables.

"I wanted it, and I thought there was a need for it, so I did it," said Casola, who grew up playing the game behind his grandfather's house in New York.

Players at Market Street exchange their driver's licenses for a set of eight bocce balls the size of small coconuts. The manager on duty provides lessons for beginners.

Casola is among the latest to jump on the bocce bandwagon. From penthouses (the seventh-floor rooftop court at the San Francisco law firm of Coblentz, Cahen, McCabe and Bryer) to prisons like the one in Marion, Ill., where Pete Rose hangs his hat, the sport of bocce is booming.

The U.S. Bocce Federation (USBF), based in Martinez, Calif., was so confident of bocce's growing popularity that it launched its own magazine in 1989.

"We already have a mailing list of 5,000," said Ken Dothee, a Martinez public defender and USBF president. "NBC called us the sport of the '90s, Fortune magazine predicted bocce would become more popular than golf and the International Olympic Committee has bestowed official recognition on the sport."

Reflecting the bocce trend, Forster Mfg. Co. Inc., the world's largest maker of croquet sets, came out last year with a high-end bocce set manufactured at its Wilton, Me., plant. Previously, Forster imported these quality sets from Italy.

"I would venture to say that bocce in the next few years will grow at a higher percentage rate than croquet," said Dick Corbin, Forster's president.

Forster's product manager, Bob Dionne, cited several reasons fueling interest in bocce. "Bocce is a highly portable game with simple rules that can be played on nearly any surface," Dionne said. "It also has been adopted by a new generation of Americans whose interests have turned to the family and 'cocooning.'

"The game is really about getting back to the basics," he added.

And bocce is about as basic as you can get, with roots going back to ancient civilization.

According to Steve Candotti, the USBF's official historian, accounts of the Punic Wars tell of Roman soldiers passing the time between battles pitching rocks at smaller stones.

Charles IV banned the sport in the mid-1300s so that his subjects could concentrate on war. Similarly, Henry VIII of England, who "bowled" on private courts at Whitehall, prohibited bocce for fear the game would detract from archery practice and lead to excessive gambling.

Candotti also traces bocce to the evolution of a number of other similar games, such as lawn bowling (England and Scotland), nine-pins and skittles (Holland) and petanque (France). Further, he ties the essentially American sport of bowling to the classic game of bocce.